Now a word from the kitchen

I'm glad to see the most emailed L.A. Times story right now is the one I enjoyed the most in yesterday's paper — Food Editor Russ Parsons' guide to caramelizing a big pot of onions. Sample:

"It's like it fills your whole mouth with savory!" she said (I keep insisting she's the real food writer in the family). "How do you make it?"

Well, I told her, you kinda just cook onions. "And then what? What do you add to it?" You just cook onions. That's it.

Such is the miracle of long, slow cooking. The happy result of a marriage between 5 pounds of onions and four hours to kill, these onions caramelize to a deep, mahogany reddish-brown with a marmalade-like consistency.

There is sweetness, yes, but there is so much else, a powerful, mouth-filling deliciousness that can't be described better than "savory." And the texture is buttery enough that they can actually be used as a fat replacement.

Holding down second on the most emailed list at LATimes.com is The Inauguration of Barack Obama. The Times photo is by Mel Melcon.